3: Three scents

Gianna’s POV

I woke up disoriented but the rough hands of the maids that dragged me earlier from the ballroom was too painful. Their fingers are digging into my arms as they forced me to sit up. I blinked but everything was still hazy.

My body ached, the bruises from Blair and Olivia’s stinging slaps still fresh on my skin but the pain in my chest was worse. Alpha Eliot’s rejection is burning my insides.

As soon as the maids realized that they had succeeded in roughly waking me up, they wasted no time and started stripping me off the stained uniform I was wearing. My eyes widened in embarrassment that someone is going to see me naked. No one ever has.

I tried to fight them but their shape commands and tighter grips on me had me shutting up and within moments I found myself stark naked in the cold shower. The water hit my skin like needles but the maids didn’t care. They scrubbed me with efficiency that was more like torture, my eyes blurring with tears.

“You’re lucky, you know.” One of them sneered, her voice dripping with disdain. “Alpha Eliot finds you attractive enough to join his harem.”

“If he had wanted he would have let you rot away as a maid like us.” The other added washing my hair with sharp tugs.

“At least you get to warm his bed even though I heard he is too rough. Well, he is the alpha. He gets what he wants the way he wants it.” The first said with a bitter tone.

Their words cut deep, reminding me of my grim reality. The tears I have been holding rolled down my cheek mingling with the water from the shower. I didn’t clean my face. There is no use. I had no choice in all of this.

Running away wasn’t an option. The patrol team has been tight lately and with the Alpha Kings arrival? Alpha Eliot didn’t want anything happening in his pack. Besides, I have nowhere else to go.

The helplessness of my situation made it hard for me to breathe. I was doomed to this fate. Becoming Alpha Eliot’s play thing when I should be his equal, his mate and his luna. The rejection burned again a constant reminder of what was taken from me. Life I am denied forever.

When they finished bathing me, they dried me off then shoved me towards the vanity. There they forced me into a sheer black lace that barely covered my body, its thin fabric doing little more than showing my vulnerability.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, my eyes were red from crying with two bruises on either side of my face. I trembled, wrapping my arms around myself in fear and despair. This is worse than a nightmare. This is what hell feels like.

The maids didn’t give me a moment to gather myself after they had me dressed in this humiliating lace. They grabbed me by my arms again and began dragging me down the dimly lit corridor towards the harem I’ve never been to.

Panic surged through me knowing as soon as I entered that room, there is no going out of it. I started twisting in their grip trying to wrench myself free. I’m now hysterical seeing the door.

“Let me go!” I plead my voice weak and trembling like my entire body.

One of the maids responded with a sharp yank at my hair, forcing my head back forcefully. “Behave yourself.” She hissed her voice cold and menacing.

The threat in her voice made me stop struggling. I was already too weak and drained to fight them off. I didn’t have the strength to resist, not after everything that has happened this evening. I’m too numb.

They finally brought me to the heavy door of the harem and shoved it open, the sickly sweet scent of perfume and incense wafting out to meet me. The room was dimly lit, filled with cushions and low couches scattered across the floor.

Gorgeous naked women lounged about, their eyes immediately turning to me as the maids pushed me inside. Their gazes were filled with disdain, their expressions cold and unwelcoming. Great.

The maids shoved me again, harder this time and I stumbled forward with my legs giving out beneath me. I fell behind a large overstuffed cushion that shielded me from the others' view. The impact rattled my already battered body.

A sharp pain shot through my head as it connected to the solid edge of the cushion. The world around me spun, the sounds of the room fading into a dull hum. I blinked trying to stay awake though my lids suddenly felt too heavy.

The overwhelming fatigue that threatened me the whole evening pulled me under. The pain in my head, my face, my arms, my scalp grew worse until finally everything went black and I chased the peace of oblivion.

Right before I passed out though, the door was pushed open again, the sound piercing through the fog clouding my mind. My senses were filled by exhaustion and pain but were suddenly assaulted by a new overwhelming scent, no. Three distinct scents each one potent and intoxicating in its own way.

The seventh were sweeter, richer and more powerful than anything I have ever encountered, more so than Eliot’s. It was as if the very air thickened with an energy that made my heart race despite the weakness in my body.

They were similar and clearly belong to the same bloodline yet each had its own unique undertone. One carried a hint of fresh pine, another was the heady scent of sandalwood and the last was a deep musty note that stirred a dead primal side of mine I had no idea existed.

I could feel the power radiating from these new arrivals and their sheer force of it left me breathless, my senses overwhelmed and thoughts scattered. My vision continued fading, the edges of the room blurring into nothingness.

But I clung to those scents letting them anchor me in the last moments before I was pulled under. Then the darkness closed in completely and I slipped away.

The only thing left in my consciousness being those three overpowering scents that somehow felt like a promise and threat all at once.